Jamal Murray continues to accumulate absences as he recently missed out on his fifth-straight contest this Sunday night, as the Nuggets lost to the Pacers, 125 to 120 at Ball Arena. This is why coach Michael Malone assured he’s hopefully that his point guard will be 100% healthy for the playoffs.
Before last night’s clash, the Denver tactician explained how keeping the 28-year-old on the bench through the past four outings wasn’t just a matter of precaution, but safety. “Jamal’s hurt. It’s not (being) careful. He’s hurt,” he assured before facing Indiana.
Malone then added: “This has been a weird one. It was day-to-day, day-to-day. The next thing you know it’s not day-to-day. So, obviously a big loss for us. But we have more than enough. We’ve shown that time and time again in that locker room.”
“So, if Jamal is unable to go, we need other guys to step up and and play desperate and play urgent,” the Nuggets coach expressed, as he was asked before tip-off if he expects the player to be back for the postseason. Michael could only said that “hopefully he’s able to be back by then.”
Now that they’ve lost four-consecutive matches, Denver are now standing fourth in the Western Conference, only a game ahead of the eighth-place Grizzlies. Despite the results, Nikola Jokic continues to dominate each NBA game he plays in, forcing rival teams to adjust their strategies against him.
“It’s a monumental task,” said Indiana coach Rick Carlisle. “If you think about it, he’s really playing every position on the floor. He’s handling the ball a lot of the time. He plays the five. I mean, he really does the things that every position on the floor does. He shoots it, he rebounds, he drives like wings.”
Malone, on the other hand, gave credit to Russell Westbrook through Jamal’s injury. “We wouldn’t be where we are right now, in fourth place with four games to go, if it wasn’t for Russell this year,” he said this weekend. “And I think it’s easy to look at with the recency bias.”
